Is it at all worth it to play a melee sorcerer? And by that I mean a character who goes into melee with only sorcerer levels. The subclass will obviously be Draconic Ancestry, for the AC boost and hp boost, but they are still a sorcerer. My character was blessed by Kord, The Strom Lord, to have magical abilities (all the draconic stuff is reflavoured) so I want him to be able to hold his own on the frontlines, but I'm not sure if I should bother trying to increase his melee capability if casting spells would just be better. Any advice is appreciated.
with a pure Sorcerer, probably not. Even with a bit more AC and HP you still are a squishy class. That said, another problem is the lack of melee spells - most spells have a range and the few that are made to be used in close range are not made so the higher risk will pay of especially good.
Attacking with some kind of weapon will probably not yield any good results, too. Granted there is Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade - both good cantrips but not a whole battleplan.
Sounds like what you really want is a tempest cleric. Even a two level dip would be excellent for heavy armor, shields and the channel divinity to pump out crazy lightning attacks.
If you do go for some tempest dippage, then I'd consider storm sorcerer over draconic since the natural armor won't be useful anymore.
Even with the dip the sorcerer base will struggle to be a consistent melee unit. You will probably have to play it more fluid, only taking the front line on occasion.
It can be done, but it has to be done carefully. You've got three problems you have to solve: AC, hitpoints, and weapons. Mountain and hilldwarf solve these problems in various ways. mountain dwarf gives you medium armor and weapons. Hilldwarf gives you weapons (trade for rapier) and bonus hitpoints which stack with draconic extra hitpoints. with the hillwarf option, you will WANT to go with finesse weapons so you can raise your ability to hit and your AC at the same time. Mountain dwarf requires you to raise str over dex, and to maintain a dex of 14.
Charisma isn't as high of priority since you will be in melee. Select spells that are going to augment your ability to act in melee, not ones that require attack rolls so your lack of focus on charisma doesn't hurt as badly.
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There's a distinction to be made between a weapon melee build and a close-quarters caster build. For the latter, divine soul can work because you get spirit guardians at level three five. You become a cloud of AOE damage. A weapons-wielding sorc seems to involve so many compromises that it doesn't seem worth it.
I wouldn't try it as a straight sorc though. I'd pick Mountain Dwarf, starting with cleric or fighter for heavy armor without wasting points on strength.
Good point Silmakhor. A weapon wielding sorcerer is going to be really hard to make viable. But a spirit guardians toting Divine Soul? Yeah that spell puts in work and has you mix it up in melee range.
I would go tempest cleric 2/ divine soul sorcerer X for a spirit guardians build that fits the theme of being blessed by Kord, Storm Lord. Storm Sorcerer is probably more thematically appropriate but doesn't support a melee build like Spirit Guardians does. That spell puts you on its back and says "don't worry, I've got this. All of this."
It can work. They're proficient in Con saves, so with a decent score, you can keep spells up. I had a mountain dwarf storm sorcerer. The martial weapons and medium armor proficiency are a godsend.
What you really want is Tortle. 17 AC right off the bat with no investments needed. Add in some Bracers of Defense and you are looking at a very respectable 19 AC that can shoot up to 24 through the Shield spell. With Tasha's option to move your racial ability scores you can easily build a straight up tank sorcerer that can max Con and Char.
The only drawback is a winged turtle will look weird as hell but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?
No dip is not optimal but who needs to be optimal all the time. Going full on dex is an option with just support spells, dual wielding shadowblade in the off hand an option. HP ain't too much of an issue as you're only one off a fighter (ave roll) and can can go full on baton down the hatches tank-mode if you need too (Action dodge to disadv attacks. quicken Blade Ward for barb like 50% resist, shield & absorb elements at the ready for your reaction).
Flame blade is now an option but means going with CHA, but at least with Transmute spell you can make it whatever elemental damage type you like. In fact that might be your answer if you just want to be a dude with a cool sword that can hit things with it and sling spells.
So kinda playing off this idea some, I'm looking to build a custom lineage warcaster feat, X level Clock soul, 2 Hexblade (ag blast and grasping blast to pull into SG), background Orzhov for Spirit Guardians. So I am going to be more in the front lines a lot of the times. What options would you guys think to keep this effective, but try to mitigate dmg done to me. I know they will be focusing on me to hit once I'm in range.
So kinda playing off this idea some, I'm looking to build a custom lineage warcaster feat, X level Clock soul, 2 Hexblade (ag blast and grasping blast to pull into SG), background Orzhov for Spirit Guardians. So I am going to be more in the front lines a lot of the times. What options would you guys think to keep this effective, but try to mitigate dmg done to me. I know they will be focusing on me to hit once I'm in range.
Take Blade Ward and Fire Shield. Blade Ward is the poor mans version of Barbarian Rage and while it uses up your Action you are fine since you are doing damage with Spirit Guardians. Fire Shield punishes them even more when they hit you and with the beauty of Warcaster, if they try to run you can pull them back in with Eldritch Blast. Another thought is to drop Agonizing Blast for Lance of Lethargy so they need to burn their Action to dash if they want to get out of your Spirit Guardians.
You can also do like a cleric and simply dodge. The Dodge action is quite effective when you have spirit guardians up as a blender. What you really need to figure out is what your bonus action is going to be used for every round.
Honestly, I would heavily consider dropping the hexblade for a cleaner progression since blade ward/dodge could easily be your primary actions. Making that build an EB spammer doesn't seem necessary. Getting spirit guardians at level 5 is a big deal.
You can also do like a cleric and simply dodge. The Dodge action is quite effective when you have spirit guardians up as a blender. What you really need to figure out is what your bonus action is going to be used for every round.
Honestly, I would heavily consider dropping the hexblade for a cleaner progression since blade ward/dodge could easily be your primary actions. Making that build an EB spammer doesn't seem necessary. Getting spirit guardians at level 5 is a big deal.
I never even looked at ward thank you both! I also tried re working it last night since were playing @lvl 9 going clock 8 (and continuing on with just it) and hex 1 (for armor and shield prof plus that single target extra prof dmg is nice too) main combo is SG + Ray of frost and either mold earth, grease, earth tremor to lock them down to 5ft movement and thus unable to move on sq grid play. now for an enemy with more than 30ft it gets more tricky but most creatures seems workable. then I could still do things with my turn since it would mostly open it up for me. Thoughts? Any other improvements?
You can also do like a cleric and simply dodge. The Dodge action is quite effective when you have spirit guardians up as a blender. What you really need to figure out is what your bonus action is going to be used for every round.
Honestly, I would heavily consider dropping the hexblade for a cleaner progression since blade ward/dodge could easily be your primary actions. Making that build an EB spammer doesn't seem necessary. Getting spirit guardians at level 5 is a big deal.
I never even looked at ward thank you both! I also tried re working it last night since were playing @lvl 9 going clock 8 (and continuing on with just it) and hex 1 (for armor and shield prof plus that single target extra prof dmg is nice too) main combo is SG + Ray of frost and either mold earth, grease, earth tremor to lock them down to 5ft movement and thus unable to move on sq grid play. now for an enemy with more than 30ft it gets more tricky but most creatures seems workable. then I could still do things with my turn since it would mostly open it up for me. Thoughts? Any other improvements?
You can also do like a cleric and simply dodge. The Dodge action is quite effective when you have spirit guardians up as a blender. What you really need to figure out is what your bonus action is going to be used for every round.
Honestly, I would heavily consider dropping the hexblade for a cleaner progression since blade ward/dodge could easily be your primary actions. Making that build an EB spammer doesn't seem necessary. Getting spirit guardians at level 5 is a big deal.
I never even looked at ward thank you both! I also tried re working it last night since were playing @lvl 9 going clock 8 (and continuing on with just it) and hex 1 (for armor and shield prof plus that single target extra prof dmg is nice too) main combo is SG + Ray of frost and either mold earth, grease, earth tremor to lock them down to 5ft movement and thus unable to move on sq grid play. now for an enemy with more than 30ft it gets more tricky but most creatures seems workable. then I could still do things with my turn since it would mostly open it up for me. Thoughts? Any other improvements?
I was going to suggest flame blade, but attacking with it costs your Action. No defenses, if that's the case.
Spiritual weapon isnt available if you're a clockwork sorc that's using the orzhov background to get spirit guardians like Rodney's build is.
I would just want all 9 levels of sorc so I can get Wall of Force from clockwork, but that's just where my head is at with casters. Hobgoblin with moderately armored and warcaster, using Tasha's to change the stats to +2 cha, +1 con. You would still have a 16-17 cha, but that's okay because spirit guardians does a lot of work even with a medium DC.
I made one melee Sorcerer. We didn't really reach any combat yet so I can't talk out of experience but I think it will work. We started at level 3. He's a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, so he gets both +AC and +HP to compensate for the lack of armour and low hit die. We used point buy for stats and I did 8, 15, 14, 10, 8, 15 (each in its respective place, so first is STR, last is CHA etc). I took the Kobold race but changed it with Tasha's so that the +2 DEX goes for CHA. So the stats after racial bonuses are the same except CHA is 17. This means the character has HP of 23 (level 3, fixed HP) and AC of 15 by default. At level 4, I'll increase his CHA and DEX to round them both up, giving better spells and better AC.
The reason for Kobold is that you get advantage on enemies that are close to another ally of yours. This means that even with low DEX (+2, +3 until level 12...) you have a good chance to hit.
As for spells and metamagic, I took a very combat-driven set of spells. It's important though. Except for Minor Illusion which doesn't necessarily help in combat, although it could, the character's cantrips are Booming Blade, Mind Sliver and Create Bonfire. For Metamagic, Quickened Spell is necessary, the other is your choice. 1st and higher-level spells are whatever you choose them to be. I took Flame Blade, Chaos Bolt, Sleep and Shield. That's nice and all but the real deal is the cantrips combo, which I explain below. You can take Shadow Blade instead of Flame Blade too, I took FB because of the draconic and fire theme but that doesn't matter yet. Later, I'll get to add CHA modifier to the spell's damage but that's far away.
So, cantrips combo. First-round, maintain distance. Cast Mind Sliver. Most creatures will fail because of low INT but if they succeed, repeat until they fail. The next round, close the distance and hit them with Create Bonfire. The Mind Sliver gives a better chance of them failing the ST. That's not all, however. You also use your Quickened Spell to cast Booming Blade. If you hit, which hopefully you will using the advantage you want to have from one of your teammates, the enemy now has to either move and receive the damage from BB or stay put and receive the damage from CB. Keep hitting with BB and hope that no one hits you and that you pass your concentration saves when they do. You have good AC for a Sorcerer but not for a melee character. If you can have a Paladin/Fighter with Protection fighting style that will be amazing. If you take a spell that deals ongoing damage in an area that's better than CB, use that for more damage. Of course, that will no longer be a cantrip.
This is only a tactic against a single target and won't work as well against multiple enemies. In those situations, you can take some cantrip instead of MI that deals damage to multiple enemies, such as Thunderclap or Sword Burst.
If you have good DEX already or a different way to get advantage/using flank rules, you can also take the Golbin race so you can get close, hit with BB and use disengage as a BA to walk away, forcing your enemies to either stay put or receive the damage when chasing you.
If you want to see the character sheet, click on "Varn" in my signature - it'll take you there.
I made one melee Sorcerer. We didn't really reach any combat yet so I can't talk out of experience but I think it will work. We started at level 3. He's a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, so he gets both +AC and +HP to compensate for the lack of armour and low hit die. We used point buy for stats and I did 8, 15, 14, 10, 8, 15 (each in its respective place, so first is STR, last is CHA etc). I took the Kobold race but changed it with Tasha's so that the +2 DEX goes for CHA. So the stats after racial bonuses are the same except CHA is 17. This means the character has HP of 23 (level 3, fixed HP) and AC of 15 by default. At level 4, I'll increase his CHA and DEX to round them both up, giving better spells and better AC.
The reason for Kobold is that you get advantage on enemies that are close to another ally of yours. This means that even with low DEX (+2, +3 until level 12...) you have a good chance to hit.
As for spells and metamagic, I took a very combat-driven set of spells. It's important though. Except for Minor Illusion which doesn't necessarily help in combat, although it could, the character's cantrips are Booming Blade, Mind Sliver and Create Bonfire. For Metamagic, Quickened Spell is necessary, the other is your choice. 1st and higher-level spells are whatever you choose them to be. I took Flame Blade, Chaos Bolt, Sleep and Shield. That's nice and all but the real deal is the cantrips combo, which I explain below. You can take Shadow Blade instead of Flame Blade too, I took FB because of the draconic and fire theme but that doesn't matter yet. Later, I'll get to add CHA modifier to the spell's damage but that's far away.
So, cantrips combo. First-round, maintain distance. Cast Mind Sliver. Most creatures will fail because of low INT but if they succeed, repeat until they fail. The next round, close the distance and hit them with Create Bonfire. The Mind Sliver gives a better chance of them failing the ST. That's not all, however. You also use your Quickened Spell to cast Booming Blade. If you hit, which hopefully you will using the advantage you want to have from one of your teammates, the enemy now has to either move and receive the damage from BB or stay put and receive the damage from CB. Keep hitting with BB and hope that no one hits you and that you pass your concentration saves when they do. You have good AC for a Sorcerer but not for a melee character. If you can have a Paladin/Fighter with Protection fighting style that will be amazing. If you take a spell that deals ongoing damage in an area that's better than CB, use that for more damage. Of course, that will no longer be a cantrip.
This is only a tactic against a single target and won't work as well against multiple enemies. In those situations, you can take some cantrip instead of MI that deals damage to multiple enemies, such as Thunderclap or Sword Burst.
If you have good DEX already or a different way to get advantage/using flank rules, you can also take the Golbin race so you can get close, hit with BB and use disengage as a BA to walk away, forcing your enemies to either stay put or receive the damage when chasing you.
If you want to see the character sheet, click on "Varn" in my signature - it'll take you there.
I like the layering approaching with CB and BB to force the enemy into pickles. That's always a lot of fun. Unfortunately the combo takes more than one round to pull off and relies on a limited resource (sorcery points) . . . so it seems like a lot of work to set up a combo that will trigger just a few times for the payout of an extra 1d8 damage. The best way to get the extra damage, IMO, would be to pick up the mobile feat. Walk up, stab, walk away. Or, as you said, just be a goblin! Attacking solo targets that lack ranged attacks is far more reliable than layering on CB for triggering BB bonus damage.
You can always layer on persistent control effects later on. But burning sorc points on two cantrips just seems inefficient.
I like the layering approaching with CB and BB to force the enemy into pickles. That's always a lot of fun. Unfortunately the combo takes more than one round to pull off and relies on a limited resource (sorcery points) . . . so it seems like a lot of work to set up a combo that will trigger just a few times for the payout of an extra 1d8 damage. The best way to get the extra damage, IMO, would be to pick up the mobile feat. Walk up, stab, walk away. Or, as you said, just be a goblin! Attacking solo targets that lack ranged attacks is far more reliable than layering on CB for triggering BB bonus damage.
You can always layer on persistent control effects later on. But burning sorc points on two cantrips just seems inefficient.
Of course, that combo is saved for when it's really needed. For small brawls and skirmishes, I'd probably just attack with BB or use MS. The character only has +2 to hit RN but it since he's a Kobold, he has an advantage so he has a good chance of hitting most of the time. In the end, a melee sorcerer will never be ideal, but the above is the best combo I could think of. Also, neither the layering nor the metamagic are really necessary. They help to execute well but it can work without it. If you position your teammates well, you can make it so that going out of the CB's area will give them an AoO. If you can do that, you can even decide not to use BB and just use MS instead so they'll have to either roll with a penalty or move and take an AoO. Also, the d4 is nice but not really necessary. While the enemy will have a better chance of succeeding on their ST without it, they can still do so even with it. It's just some extra fear that staying put, making the damage only potential and guaranteed like moving is, still has good chances of damaging the target.
Is it at all worth it to play a melee sorcerer? And by that I mean a character who goes into melee with only sorcerer levels. The subclass will obviously be Draconic Ancestry, for the AC boost and hp boost, but they are still a sorcerer. My character was blessed by Kord, The Strom Lord, to have magical abilities (all the draconic stuff is reflavoured) so I want him to be able to hold his own on the frontlines, but I'm not sure if I should bother trying to increase his melee capability if casting spells would just be better. Any advice is appreciated.
with a pure Sorcerer, probably not. Even with a bit more AC and HP you still are a squishy class. That said, another problem is the lack of melee spells - most spells have a range and the few that are made to be used in close range are not made so the higher risk will pay of especially good.
Attacking with some kind of weapon will probably not yield any good results, too. Granted there is Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade - both good cantrips but not a whole battleplan.
Sounds like what you really want is a tempest cleric. Even a two level dip would be excellent for heavy armor, shields and the channel divinity to pump out crazy lightning attacks.
If you do go for some tempest dippage, then I'd consider storm sorcerer over draconic since the natural armor won't be useful anymore.
Even with the dip the sorcerer base will struggle to be a consistent melee unit. You will probably have to play it more fluid, only taking the front line on occasion.
It can be done, but it has to be done carefully. You've got three problems you have to solve: AC, hitpoints, and weapons. Mountain and hilldwarf solve these problems in various ways. mountain dwarf gives you medium armor and weapons. Hilldwarf gives you weapons (trade for rapier) and bonus hitpoints which stack with draconic extra hitpoints. with the hillwarf option, you will WANT to go with finesse weapons so you can raise your ability to hit and your AC at the same time. Mountain dwarf requires you to raise str over dex, and to maintain a dex of 14.
Charisma isn't as high of priority since you will be in melee. Select spells that are going to augment your ability to act in melee, not ones that require attack rolls so your lack of focus on charisma doesn't hurt as badly.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
There's a distinction to be made between a weapon melee build and a close-quarters caster build. For the latter, divine soul can work because you get spirit guardians at level
threefive. You become a cloud of AOE damage. A weapons-wielding sorc seems to involve so many compromises that it doesn't seem worth it.I wouldn't try it as a straight sorc though. I'd pick Mountain Dwarf, starting with cleric or fighter for heavy armor without wasting points on strength.
Good point Silmakhor. A weapon wielding sorcerer is going to be really hard to make viable. But a spirit guardians toting Divine Soul? Yeah that spell puts in work and has you mix it up in melee range.
Cleric vs. Fighter to taste based on fighting style vs. slots and level one utility spells.
I would go tempest cleric 2/ divine soul sorcerer X for a spirit guardians build that fits the theme of being blessed by Kord, Storm Lord. Storm Sorcerer is probably more thematically appropriate but doesn't support a melee build like Spirit Guardians does. That spell puts you on its back and says "don't worry, I've got this. All of this."
It can work. They're proficient in Con saves, so with a decent score, you can keep spells up. I had a mountain dwarf storm sorcerer. The martial weapons and medium armor proficiency are a godsend.
What you really want is Tortle. 17 AC right off the bat with no investments needed. Add in some Bracers of Defense and you are looking at a very respectable 19 AC that can shoot up to 24 through the Shield spell. With Tasha's option to move your racial ability scores you can easily build a straight up tank sorcerer that can max Con and Char.
The only drawback is a winged turtle will look weird as hell but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?
Hope this helps.
No dip is not optimal but who needs to be optimal all the time. Going full on dex is an option with just support spells, dual wielding shadowblade in the off hand an option. HP ain't too much of an issue as you're only one off a fighter (ave roll) and can can go full on baton down the hatches tank-mode if you need too (Action dodge to disadv attacks. quicken Blade Ward for barb like 50% resist, shield & absorb elements at the ready for your reaction).
Flame blade is now an option but means going with CHA, but at least with Transmute spell you can make it whatever elemental damage type you like. In fact that might be your answer if you just want to be a dude with a cool sword that can hit things with it and sling spells.
Not optimal, but might be fun.
So kinda playing off this idea some, I'm looking to build a custom lineage warcaster feat, X level Clock soul, 2 Hexblade (ag blast and grasping blast to pull into SG), background Orzhov for Spirit Guardians. So I am going to be more in the front lines a lot of the times. What options would you guys think to keep this effective, but try to mitigate dmg done to me. I know they will be focusing on me to hit once I'm in range.
Take Blade Ward and Fire Shield. Blade Ward is the poor mans version of Barbarian Rage and while it uses up your Action you are fine since you are doing damage with Spirit Guardians. Fire Shield punishes them even more when they hit you and with the beauty of Warcaster, if they try to run you can pull them back in with Eldritch Blast. Another thought is to drop Agonizing Blast for Lance of Lethargy so they need to burn their Action to dash if they want to get out of your Spirit Guardians.
Hope this helps.
You can also do like a cleric and simply dodge. The Dodge action is quite effective when you have spirit guardians up as a blender. What you really need to figure out is what your bonus action is going to be used for every round.
Honestly, I would heavily consider dropping the hexblade for a cleaner progression since blade ward/dodge could easily be your primary actions. Making that build an EB spammer doesn't seem necessary. Getting spirit guardians at level 5 is a big deal.
I never even looked at ward thank you both! I also tried re working it last night since were playing @lvl 9 going clock 8 (and continuing on with just it) and hex 1 (for armor and shield prof plus that single target extra prof dmg is nice too) main combo is SG + Ray of frost and either mold earth, grease, earth tremor to lock them down to 5ft movement and thus unable to move on sq grid play. now for an enemy with more than 30ft it gets more tricky but most creatures seems workable. then I could still do things with my turn since it would mostly open it up for me. Thoughts? Any other improvements?
If spirit guardians is on the table, then so is spiritual weapon. And you can activate it in the same round as blade ward.
I was going to suggest flame blade, but attacking with it costs your Action. No defenses, if that's the case.
Spiritual weapon isnt available if you're a clockwork sorc that's using the orzhov background to get spirit guardians like Rodney's build is.
I would just want all 9 levels of sorc so I can get Wall of Force from clockwork, but that's just where my head is at with casters. Hobgoblin with moderately armored and warcaster, using Tasha's to change the stats to +2 cha, +1 con. You would still have a 16-17 cha, but that's okay because spirit guardians does a lot of work even with a medium DC.
I made one melee Sorcerer. We didn't really reach any combat yet so I can't talk out of experience but I think it will work. We started at level 3. He's a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, so he gets both +AC and +HP to compensate for the lack of armour and low hit die. We used point buy for stats and I did 8, 15, 14, 10, 8, 15 (each in its respective place, so first is STR, last is CHA etc). I took the Kobold race but changed it with Tasha's so that the +2 DEX goes for CHA. So the stats after racial bonuses are the same except CHA is 17. This means the character has HP of 23 (level 3, fixed HP) and AC of 15 by default. At level 4, I'll increase his CHA and DEX to round them both up, giving better spells and better AC.
The reason for Kobold is that you get advantage on enemies that are close to another ally of yours. This means that even with low DEX (+2, +3 until level 12...) you have a good chance to hit.
As for spells and metamagic, I took a very combat-driven set of spells. It's important though. Except for Minor Illusion which doesn't necessarily help in combat, although it could, the character's cantrips are Booming Blade, Mind Sliver and Create Bonfire. For Metamagic, Quickened Spell is necessary, the other is your choice. 1st and higher-level spells are whatever you choose them to be. I took Flame Blade, Chaos Bolt, Sleep and Shield. That's nice and all but the real deal is the cantrips combo, which I explain below. You can take Shadow Blade instead of Flame Blade too, I took FB because of the draconic and fire theme but that doesn't matter yet. Later, I'll get to add CHA modifier to the spell's damage but that's far away.
So, cantrips combo. First-round, maintain distance. Cast Mind Sliver. Most creatures will fail because of low INT but if they succeed, repeat until they fail. The next round, close the distance and hit them with Create Bonfire. The Mind Sliver gives a better chance of them failing the ST. That's not all, however. You also use your Quickened Spell to cast Booming Blade. If you hit, which hopefully you will using the advantage you want to have from one of your teammates, the enemy now has to either move and receive the damage from BB or stay put and receive the damage from CB. Keep hitting with BB and hope that no one hits you and that you pass your concentration saves when they do. You have good AC for a Sorcerer but not for a melee character. If you can have a Paladin/Fighter with Protection fighting style that will be amazing. If you take a spell that deals ongoing damage in an area that's better than CB, use that for more damage. Of course, that will no longer be a cantrip.
This is only a tactic against a single target and won't work as well against multiple enemies. In those situations, you can take some cantrip instead of MI that deals damage to multiple enemies, such as Thunderclap or Sword Burst.
If you have good DEX already or a different way to get advantage/using flank rules, you can also take the Golbin race so you can get close, hit with BB and use disengage as a BA to walk away, forcing your enemies to either stay put or receive the damage when chasing you.
If you want to see the character sheet, click on "Varn" in my signature - it'll take you there.
Varielky
I like the layering approaching with CB and BB to force the enemy into pickles. That's always a lot of fun. Unfortunately the combo takes more than one round to pull off and relies on a limited resource (sorcery points) . . . so it seems like a lot of work to set up a combo that will trigger just a few times for the payout of an extra 1d8 damage. The best way to get the extra damage, IMO, would be to pick up the mobile feat. Walk up, stab, walk away. Or, as you said, just be a goblin! Attacking solo targets that lack ranged attacks is far more reliable than layering on CB for triggering BB bonus damage.
You can always layer on persistent control effects later on. But burning sorc points on two cantrips just seems inefficient.
Of course, that combo is saved for when it's really needed. For small brawls and skirmishes, I'd probably just attack with BB or use MS. The character only has +2 to hit RN but it since he's a Kobold, he has an advantage so he has a good chance of hitting most of the time. In the end, a melee sorcerer will never be ideal, but the above is the best combo I could think of. Also, neither the layering nor the metamagic are really necessary. They help to execute well but it can work without it. If you position your teammates well, you can make it so that going out of the CB's area will give them an AoO. If you can do that, you can even decide not to use BB and just use MS instead so they'll have to either roll with a penalty or move and take an AoO. Also, the d4 is nice but not really necessary. While the enemy will have a better chance of succeeding on their ST without it, they can still do so even with it. It's just some extra fear that staying put, making the damage only potential and guaranteed like moving is, still has good chances of damaging the target.
Varielky